Playground Principles

Recess. The good ole days of school where every day you were allowed to go outside, breathe fresh air, and chase the new love of your fifth grade life. Now, recess or gym seem to be an elective where you might move around every nine weeks. I remember how the kind of day I was having at school could determine what recess was going to be like. There were the days that girls were spatting all day and you knew it was going to be a time of cat fighting around the swings. Then there were the days that boys were picking on the odd man out and they were going to bully him around to get his lunch money. There were the days that you wore your cute, "don't get sweaty" outfit to be noticed by your new crush. How about the days where the gossip train made its way to all four corners of the chain linked fenced in area? Maybe that is why recess isn't such a big deal any more.

Yesterday, I was thinking about how even in your adult years there are days we experience flashbacks of playground drama. Somebody is making us mad. Somebody is hurting our feelings. Gossip is creeping into our day. People all around us are stealing our lunch money (I put gas in my car yesterday). We might be all dressed up, have a job and a few kids but some of the principles with relationships are just modified playground issues. Basically, I think we might have been on a training field all those years.

I wish I knew then some of what I know now. I get tickled that our playgrounds now are plexiglass rooms inside restaurants with tubes, ladders, and plastic balls while kids have a chicken nugget in one hand. You can open the door, feel the steam, and smell the togetherness. You have the parents that are tucked in a corner booth with their cell phones or the parents that gather to socialize, never looking up to see that their child is terrorizing the tunnels. I was that mom that would give the death look to other kids as they picked on my kids. Talk about flashbacks! I wasn't going to let the world mess with my kids. Guess what? The world is messing with our kids. The challenges they face are even scarier and bigger than the things we faced.

I can't put the world in time out or give every bad influence write offs. I have been praying for God to help me to better equip my kids AND me. On the big girl playground, I can fall quickly to jealousy, gossip, anger, fear, low self esteem, or bitterness. I have to remember to only desire to be popular for One. I have to pray to rub off on others and not allow negativity to rub off on me. I have to remember that I am to be different. Romans 7:18 says, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out." (ESV)

In order to carry it out, I have to get on the playground and chase my crush. The One whom I love dearly. I have to be close to Him in order to be more like Him and to turn my desire to do what is right into action. I have to seek Him with all my heart so I can model it for my kids and show them what it takes. Jesus doesn't care about my lunch money or my cute outfit. He doesn't care for the latest gossip or popular clicks. He wants to see what I am going to do with what He is teaching me and He wants to be there for me on the days I am full of energy and the days that I feel too tired to play.